feat(ngForm): Supports expressions in form name

[damrbaby]

Now it is possible to access a form from a controller using the new controller as syntax, without having to access $scope:

Old way:

<div ng-controller="MainCtrl as main">
  <form name="form" ng-submit="main.submit()">
  </form>
</div>

...

.controller('MainCtrl', function($scope) {
  this.submit = function() {
    if $scope.form.$valid {
      // do something!
    }
  }
})

New way:

<div ng-controller="MainCtrl as main">
  <form name="main.form" ng-submit="main.submit()">
  </form>
</div>

...

.controller('MainCtrl', function() {
  this.submit = function() {
    if this.form.$valid {
      // do something!
    }
  }
})

[jonbcard]

Awesome! This is definitely needed. Very annoying today to need to structure my forms to avoid having them hidden inside child scopes. IMO. dot notation in a form name should be a de facto best practice (just like it is for ng-model).

[cironunes]

+1

[thatmarvin]

This makes sense. +1

[petebacondarwin]

PR Checklist (Minor Feature)

• Contributor signed CLA now or in the past (if you just signed, leave a comment here with your real name for cross reference)
• Feature improves existing core functionality
• API is compatible with existing Angular apis and relevant standards (if applicable)
• PR doesn't contain a breaking change
• PR contains unit tests
• PR contains e2e tests (if suitable)
• PR contains documentation update
• PR passes all tests on Travis (sanity)
• PR passes all tests on ci.angularjs.org (cross-browser compatibility)
• PR is rebased against recent master
• PR is squashed into one commit per logical change
• PR's commit messages are descriptive and allows us to autogenerate release notes (required commit message format)
• All changes requested in review have been implemented

[damrbaby]

@petebacondarwin I signed the CLA (name is Matthew Windwer)

What else do you need from me? I can take care of the documentation update as well, if that's necessary.

[btford]

Made a minor change (removed $parse in favor of the more lightweight setter), and landed as 8ea802a.

Thanks!

[damrbaby]

@btford great! Just out of curiosity, where is setter defined?

[petebacondarwin]

@damrbaby - https://github.com/angular/angular.js/blob/master/src/ng/parse.js#L759

[Beelal]

Sounds like a great change. I have a question though:

How to call $apply with this new change? this.$apply gives an error. Also, how private function for e.g. privateFunction below can access 'this' objects?

angular.module('demo')
.controller('MainCtrl', function () {
this.demoObject = {};

var privateFunction = function() {
this.demoObject.var1 = ""; // gives an error
}
}

[damrbaby]

@bilalahmed70 I think you are referring to the "controller as" syntax that was introduced in 1.1.5, as this PR just deals specifically with form names.

Anyway you are correct that you cannot call this.$apply() within a controller... you would still need to inject $scope and call $scope.$apply() if you really needed to do that.

A private function within a controller is going to have a different this unless you bind it to the controller, e.g. var privateFunction = function() { this.demoObject.var1 = "" }.bind(this)

[Beelal]

@damrbaby Yes, I was referring to the "controller as" syntax. I thought this is set to $scope like this 'this = $scope' but I guess that's not the case. I use $scope.$apply as it is required for third party library calls like firebase or parse.

Appreciate your response! Thanks.